Introduction

Thomas Pennant, portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, 1776
(Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Famously described by Samuel Johnson as ‘the best traveller I ever read; he observes more things than anyone else does’, Thomas Pennant’s 1765 continental tour certainly lives up to expectations. Furthermore, it demonstrates that he was honing his skills as a writer of travel literature some time before the literary and commercial successes of his Scottish and Welsh tours, published in the 1770s and 1780s. Still a relatively youthful figure approaching his forty years, Pennant was newly widowed with two young children when he undertook the tour between 10 February and 18 August 1765. His journey took him through France, where he spent six weeks in Paris; to Switzerland with its majestic Alpine scenery; and then homewards through Germany, the Netherlands, and Flanders. The detailed journal Pennant kept of the tour remained unpublished during his lifetime and, although later additions suggest that he may have tinkered with the possibility of releasing it, it remained in manuscript form until 1948 when the Ray Society published a transcription with partial annotation by its president, Gavin Rylands de Beer (1899–1972).

It is De Beer’s text that forms the basis of the Itinerary provided here. Using geo coordinates to plot the journey, we have created a resource which reflects the diversity of Pennant’s continental experience, his observation of the landscape around him as he travelled; his sightings of pictures by old masters and contemporary artists alike; his notice of the natural history cabinets of notable scientists and others less renowned; his commentary on antiquarian remains, whether monuments in churches or the Roman legacy of Gaul, Switzerland and Germany; and his awareness of the realities of the lives of the inhabitants of the towns and villages which he visited – their dress, their mercantile habits, the punishments doled out to them for offences. All these observations speak to what we know of Pennant’s interests at this time and later in his life: a member of the Society of Antiquaries from 1754, he was honoured with election to the Royal Society soon after his return from this journey. He had been a Justice of the Peace in his native Flintshire in north east Wales since 1756; he was a gifted gentleman artist himself and his love of art is a strong characteristic of his later published tours in Scotland and Wales.

In order to represent these diverse preoccupations clearly and without overburdening the format used here for the creation of the map, we have divided the tour into six strands to be accessed via the menu at the top of the page. Each tour strand gives the standardized names of the locations plotted on the map, together with the date (or range of dates) on which Pennant visited them. On clicking the locations represented by dots on the map, users can access a pop-up box providing this information, together with additional details according to the particular strand of the tour selected. Throughout, Pennant’s original text, as provided by De Beer, has been preferred over a standardized edited text. The material (including at times the names of people and places), thus appears as expressed in idiosyncratic eighteenth-century orthography. Examples include the name Sergius Galba (recte Servius Galba); Bareyth (recte Bayreuth); or words such as ‘linnen’, ‘melancoly’ or ‘villany’.

Within each pop-up box, the text has been enriched by additional information. Some of this is provided by De Beer in footnotes to the printed edition of the tour; acknowledgement of this work is made using the abbreviation De Beer (1948), followed by page number and the letter ‘n’ or ‘nn’ for note or multiple notes. Further information is given through clickable links to material accessible directly online. This feature serves to direct the user to further sources regarding places, people, and works of art. It also functions as a means of highlighting such names, even when very common and unlikely to need further explanation: for example, the case of British place names such as Northamptonshire, mentioned by Pennant as a point of comparison with characteristics observed on the continent.

The primary source of the information provided is Wikipedia, in English where possible but occasionally in French or German. Additional sources range from the website of the National Archives (at https://disccovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk), bibliographic sites (such as worldcat.org or data.bnf.fr) together with Google books; sites providing tourist information (e.g. http://www.discoverleuven.com or tripadvisor.co.uk); and art websites (e.g. tate.org.uk or wikiart.org). The links chosen (out of a wide range at times) were selected because of their relevance to Pennant’s text. Only when it could be ascertained that they were a valid point of reference were they made directly accessible to the user through the clickable text: a picture in a web source might, for instance, show physical features which match Pennant’s description, as in the case of an unnamed bridge at Würzburg, said by Pennant to have six arches, which can be linked with the photograph of the ‘Alte Mainbrücke’ shown in a photograph on the town’s tourist pages (https://www.wuerzburg.de/en/visitors/must-sees/22694.Alte-Mainbruecke-old-bridge.html). Art works which could be identified likewise appear with a link to a source which provides a visual image; but where the identification is less certain, the information was provided through a link in adjacent bracketed text.

The tours created are as follows:

• The Traveller’s tour, which gives the basic information about the physical process of the journey, including Pennant’s name for the place if different from the standard name; a simple description of the locations; a list of places visited within the location; and any observations made by Pennant en route as he travelled to and from that specific place.

• The Art tour lists art noted by Pennant. Works which could be identified appear with a link to a source which provides a visual image or other relevant information. The artists are also recorded according to their standardized names under a separate heading.

• A History and Antiquities tour delineates architectural features, together with Roman and other antiquities.

• The Natural History tour names the material viewed by Pennant in the company of his pre-existing and new contacts in continental Europe, focusing on providing information about the people involved.

• In the Networking tour, contacts and influences on Pennant are highlighted. These include people he met or simply mentioned; deceased figures are noted as such with square brackets following their names. Those named include authors – both ancient classical figures such as Julius Caesar and key eighteenth-century travellers to Europe such as Joseph Addison. Their inclusion sometimes suggests the author’s revision of his text and recapitulation of his journey at a later date.

• Finally, the People and Customs tour shows Pennant’s keen eye for contemporary life, and includes observations on mercantile and other business activity, together with comments on the justice systems of the countries visited and the often gruelling deaths of condemned prisoners.

Albrecht Dürer, ‘The lamentation over the dead Christ’, viewed by Pennant at St Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg, on 17 June 1765
(Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Brienzersee, Switzerland, seen by Pennant on 28 May 1765
(Roland Fischer, Zürich, CC BT-SA 3,9, Wikimedia Commons)